This might be my favorite Super Bowl ad of all time, at least, until this year (more tomorrow about that). But when I went looking for it on YouTube, I found a decent number of remarks that display various levels of outrage, claiming that our hero is actually committing an act of sexual assault.

I’m extremely passionate about women’s rights, women’s equality, and condemning the abuse of women, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. I’ve gone off on that subject a few times here when there have been instances of women being treated like second class citizens (or worse, or so, so, so much worse) in science, academia, or in science fiction and fantasy fandom.

Yet I love this ad. It’s not just that the kid gets the confidence to kiss the girl, and it’s not that the girl doesn’t seem to mind at all. He’s also parking in the principal’s parking spot, he’s got a spring in his step, he’s taking a potentially seriously embarrassing social moment and turning it into an act of defiance.

I’m torn.

Is the negative response a symptom of political correctness gone too far? Or is the fact that I like the ad a sign that I have the “patriarchal rape culture” ingrained in my zeitgeist far more deeply than I thought?

Comments?

Tomorrow I think we’ll talk about this year’s Super Bowl ad from Audi. It’s a lot less controversial.

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One response to “Super Bowl Ad #1”

I’m going with PC overboard. I thought the ad was funny. But you know how it is, steal a kiss, the next thing you know you’re a serial rapist. It is the same as smoking a joint leads to being a heroin junkie!!!!